Merry 'Slimline' Wishes

Hello friends! Have you seen the new card trend that is circulating around? This design style is called “slimline’ and there are several size and dimension variations. I designed this ‘slimline’ card to showcase the In the Pines Bundle from the Handmade for You catalogue.

I absolutely LOVE the color palette on this card. It isn’t what you would call traditional in the holiday color scheme sense, but I love the soft colors and the idea of the trees transitioning from fall into winter colors.

I started with Calypso Coral, then Pumpkin Pie and moved into the blue green family of colors with Pool Party, Coastal Cabana and finally Just Jade which is also the base color of this card.

I stamped the outline of each tree in full strength ink and the ‘filler’ of the tree I stamped ‘off’ on my scratch pad so the ink was a tone lighter.

I wanted a snow drift so I used the curved snow drift die from the Pine Wood Dies and added some embossing paste on top to give it some texture and to help it mimic snow. I actually know a lot about snow because where I live, we have snow for at least 5 months of the year! Haha! Unofficial expert over here!

The base of my card is 7 x 8 1/2 and on the 7 inch side you are going to score at 3 1/2. There are several size variations to this card style so there is lots of room to play around and have fun. The Whisper White layer is 2 3/4 x 7 3/4 .

Naturally a card of this size needs a custom envelop too! I stamped the trees on the left corner and did a little marker spritzing. And on the inside flap, I added a piece of silver foil paper to play off of the silver Merry on the front of the card.

The create both this card and envelop you will need a full sheet of card stock to start. So just keep that in mind if you are planning to offer the slimline card as a class.

To create the envelop score your 8 1/2 x 11 on the 8 1/2 (vertical side) at 2 1/2 and 6 1/2. Rotate and on the long (horizontal) side score at 1 1/2 and 10 1/2. Now you want to trim away the 4 little side pieces as shown in the photo below. I then rounded the panels at the top and bottom using the Detailed Trio punch. It can round your edges, punch out a little flower detail as shown and small oval hole perfect to turn your project into a tag!

I cut the word ‘Merry’ using the Playful Alphabet dies with Silver Foil paper and the Foam Adhesive Sheets. ‘Wishes’ is cut from Calypso Coral card stock using the Well Written dies. I added on some fun bling using the Holiday Rhinestone Basic Jewels and the Champagne Rhinestones. And a little strip of the In Color 6x6 Designer Paper on the left edge helps ground the card and the wood grain pattern plays off of the trees.

I hope you are excited to give this card style a try! I absolutely LOVE it!

Create with Connie and Mary--Thinking of Christmas!

I will admit it, I have been thinking of Christmas! It is actually not that far away and I find this is the busiest time of year with other holidays along the way and one of my kids celebrating a birthday. Plus we have On Stage to look forward to as well.

The theme this week is “Thinking of Christmas” and I created this pretty traditional card to reflect the holiday.

I really love mixing and matching products as shown in this card here. I featured the Gift Wrapped Bundle with accents from the Snowflake Splendor Suite and the Everything Essential Bundle.

I started with a base of Cherry Cobbler and ran a layered piece of card stock through the Winter Snow Embossing Folder for a subtle winter feel. I used the Essential Tag punch with some retired DSP (there I said, it, I have it and I still use it when it works) to create a base for the gift bow. I stamped the bow and embossed it with gold embossing powder. I love Gift Bow Builder punch! I added in bit of Shaded Spruce Ribbon (also retired) with some of the gold thread included in the Tag Buffet kit (waste not, want not!).

A Very Merry Christmas is stamped in Shaded Spruce card stock in the same ink. I added in another gold detail by cutting some of our Gold Foil paper with the scallop die from the Peony Dies.

This card design has such great potential. I will definitely be using it again and will just mix up some of the elements.

Can’t wait to see what the other girls have created! You can go BACK to see what Melissa designed or NEXT to see what Connie has made this week.

Merry Christmas Wreath

Okay, so I will admit that I am late to the game here with the Arrange a Wreath Bundle…and I LOVE it! I recently took advantage of a 50% off item to get this bundle and its so fabulous! I decided to pair up the wreath with the In Good Taste Designer Series Paper to mimic a rustic front door.

I loved this card so much I decided to make a bunch for a card swap I have on the horizon. I started by choosing Just Jade and Shaded Spruce to be my wreath colors and added in some Very Vanilla poinsettia’s , both cut from the Wreath Builder dies.

Merry Christmas is stamped in Just Jade ink with a bit of ink flicking done in the same color. I added some Blue Adhesive Backed Gems to the wreath as well. Don’t let the description fool you, these gems have a magical quality of reflecting the surface they are on, so you can see on the wreath how they pick up the green tones! Sometimes, the only way to figure these things out is by playing around.

You may notice I added another little strip of DSP to the side of the woodgrain DSP. It from the Tis’ the Season 6x6 stack and it combines Real Red and Cherry Cobbler together. The base of my card is Cherry Cobbler which helped that little strip just pop off the page.

I absolutely love how this finished card turned out. It is traditional holiday colors and Christmas feel to me and I hope you will give this bundle a try!

If you are in Canada, you can shop my online store by following the link below or using my host code on the side of my blog. I would love to send you a thank you card so make sure you don’t click NO CONTACT when you are ordering (unless you want to be anonymous).

Have a fabulous day!

Man's Best Friend

Recently a dear friend of mine lost her beloved dog after many years of being a beloved family member. She asked me to create a scrapbook page in his memory.

She asked me to use the Playing with Patterns Designer Series paper and the new Playful Pets stamp set. I decided to add in a retired set, Happy Tails, into the design too because it has some really special elements. I also borrowed the phrase “We’re the Best of friends” from the Bird Ballad stamp set.

I chose the color palette of Misty Moonlight, Seaside Spray, and Crushed Curry but you could easily reproduce this page with more feminine colors using the same 6x6 stack (Purple Posy and Calypso Coral).

I cut a large heart using the Stitched Be Mine dies to be the focal point of where Jake’s name was to go. This could also be customizable too. I added lots of stamped hearts and paw prints. This page is an eclectic mix of new products, older favourites and retired stamp sets. Some sets you just can’t part with!

A few different ribbons helped create this focal area. I used the Bumblebee Gingham ribbon, the blue from the Playing with Patterns Ribbon Combo pack and some silver twine I had laying around.

I really loved the sentiment “ A Best Friend” and it worked perfectly right above the Seaside Spray heart.

I actually loved how this turned out so much that I decided to turn it into a card too. Do you ever do that? I often do when I create something I love.

To create the card, I kept many of the same elements as the scrapbook page, but decided to stamp and color with Stampin’ Blends the cute dog from the Pampered Pets stamp set in Smoky Slate with a Crushed Curry collar to coordinate. I kept the ribbons and added in a couple embellshments from the Frosted & Clear Epoxy Droplets collection.

I hope both of these projects inspire you today and I am blessed my friend asked me to create such a meaningful memento.

Stampin' For Christmas-Let's get Christmassy!

Thank you for joining us on this monthly Christmas themed blog hop featuring the many fabulous Stampin’ Up! products we all have to choose from! Sometimes it is hard to pick just one set to focus on! I did narrow it down to the Coming Home Bundle as I am having too much fun colouring all of the houses and trees. Colouring can be so relaxing and its so easy with our Stampin’ Blends! This bundle is part of a larger suite called Trimming the Town.

This stamp set does not have any sentiments to it, which is sort of unique to Stampin’ Up! It is all images. So I pulled in a nice sized ‘Merry Christmas’ from the Tag Buffet stamp set.

I used Balmy Blue as my card base and stamped the sentiment in the same color. The house is coloured in Real Red with Crumb Cake accents and Balmy Blue on the windows. The trees are classic Old Olive and Crumb Cake.

I used one of the dies from the Home Together Dies that has the trees and the snow drift shapes. It created a great background and I stamped directly to this piece. The house and trees are layered over top.

I wanted the illusion of a snow storm too so I stole a snowflake from the So Many Snowflakes dies and added those in. I then created a spray with my Wink of Stella and Balmy Blue markers to add to the snowfall feel.

I think this is a great card that you could easily mass produce and enjoy the relaxing creative benefits of colouring!

You can visit Sue Allen’s blog next to see what her crafty Christmas creation is! I hope you hop all the way through so you do not miss anyone’s creativity!